Restore a former User Account after OS reinstall?

[rchapman]

My Windows XP PC had a Blue Screen of Death. "Page Fault" suggested a
hardware problem, so I brought it to a local repair shop. They eventually
diagnosed a problem with my second internal HD (E:, as the DVD drive was D.
However, in the course of doing so, they thought it would help to reinstall
the OS. They created a new User Account called "Owner"; now my old User
Account, "My Name," is no longer accessible. I see its folder in "Documents
and Settings," and it has all of the files it did before OS reinstallation,
but even creating a new User Account with that name does not access that
folder; it creates a new User Account with the computer's name appended to
"My Name" and is a new, empty account. How do I "reactivate" my old account,
"My Name," to restore all of its settings, hopefully including applications'
registry, etc.? Thanks.

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

My Windows XP PC had a Blue Screen of Death. "Page Fault" suggested a
hardware problem, so I brought it to a local repair shop. They eventually
diagnosed a problem with my second internal HD (E:, as the DVD drive was
D.
However, in the course of doing so, they thought it would help to
reinstall
the OS. They created a new User Account called "Owner"; now my old User
Account, "My Name," is no longer accessible. I see its folder in
"Documents
and Settings," and it has all of the files it did before OS
reinstallation,
but even creating a new User Account with that name does not access that
folder; it creates a new User Account with the computer's name appended to
"My Name" and is a new, empty account. How do I "reactivate" my old
account,
"My Name," to restore all of its settings, hopefully including
applications'
registry, etc.? Thanks.

You could do this:
1. Log on as administrator.
2. Modify the permissions of the old profile folder so that your new account
has full read/write access to it.
3. Modify the registry so that your new account uses the old profile folder.
The location is specified here: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList.

If you have little experience in modifying the registry then it's best to
ask a computer-savvy friend to assist you.

 

[Jim]

My Windows XP PC had a Blue Screen of Death. "Page Fault" suggested a
hardware problem, so I brought it to a local repair shop. They eventually
diagnosed a problem with my second internal HD (E:, as the DVD drive was
D.
However, in the course of doing so, they thought it would help to
reinstall
the OS. They created a new User Account called "Owner"; now my old User
Account, "My Name," is no longer accessible. I see its folder in
"Documents
and Settings," and it has all of the files it did before OS
reinstallation,
but even creating a new User Account with that name does not access that
folder; it creates a new User Account with the computer's name appended to
"My Name" and is a new, empty account. How do I "reactivate" my old
account,
"My Name," to restore all of its settings, hopefully including
applications'
registry, etc.? Thanks.

You don't "reactivate" an account. One method that I used was to take
ownership of the old files and moved them to the new locations.

Jim

 

[Jose]

My Windows XP PC had a Blue Screen of Death. "Page Fault" suggested a
hardware problem, so I brought it to a local repair shop. They eventually
diagnosed a problem with my second internal HD (E:, as the DVD drive was D.
However, in the course of doing so, they thought it would help to reinstall
the OS. They created a new User Account called "Owner"; now my old User
Account, "My Name," is no longer accessible. I see its folder in "Documents
and Settings," and it has all of the files it did before OS reinstallation,
but even creating a new User Account with that name does not access that
folder; it creates a new User Account with the computer's name appended to
"My Name" and is a new, empty account. How do I "reactivate" my old account,
"My Name," to restore all of its settings, hopefully including applications'
registry, etc.? Thanks.

How about treating your old profile as a profile that somehow got
corrupted? There is a a known easy solution to copy most of the info
from one user profile to a new one.

Using your Administrator account (or someone like that) create a new
user with your old name, copy the information (which is all but three
files) under Documents and Settings from the old profile (you can see
it, right?) to the new profile.

You have to do the copying with some account that is not in use -
Administrator or something like that.

Since your old stuff is still there and you are just copying it
someplace else, you will risk nothing under your old Documents and
Settings. If you don't like the results in the new copied into
profile, whack it and create plan B.

If your OS was reinstalled that complicates things, your installed
applications will have to be reinstalled of course, but you probably
already figured that part out, but you will have all your old
Documents and Settings stuff.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151

 

[rchapman]

How about treating your old profile as a profile that somehow got
corrupted? There is a a known easy solution to copy most of the info
from one user profile to a new one.

Using your Administrator account (or someone like that) create a new
user with your old name, copy the information (which is all but three
files) under Documents and Settings from the old profile (you can see
it, right?) to the new profile.

You have to do the copying with some account that is not in use -
Administrator or something like that.

Since your old stuff is still there and you are just copying it
someplace else, you will risk nothing under your old Documents and
Settings. If you don't like the results in the new copied into
profile, whack it and create plan B.

If your OS was reinstalled that complicates things, your installed
applications will have to be reinstalled of course, but you probably
already figured that part out, but you will have all your old
Documents and Settings stuff.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151

Thanks, Jose. That clarifies my options. I suspected that I could move all
of the files in my former profile ("My Name") to the new profile ("Owner").
(I cannot just copy them, as the disk is too full to duplicate them.) I was
hoping, however, that if I could just access my old profile as a User Account
again, I could instantly resume all activity as if it were the previous User
Account, particularly being able to use applications immediately without
reinstalling them. Perhaps that's not the case.

So even if I modify the registry HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList for my old profile to be used by my new User
Account, as Pegasus recommended, would my applications not be usable as they
were before (until reinstalled)?

I have started updating XP SP2 with available updates (134 of them!) since
the reinstall, but that's all I have done. Will replacing "Owner's" profile
(in Documents and Settings) with "My Name's" data lose anything I have done
so far?

 

[rchapman]

Pegasus,

I started to undertake the modification you suggested. I found
"HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ProfileList." It has these
contents [Name: Data]:
(Default): (value not set)
AllUsersProfile: All Users.WINDOWS
DefaultUserProfile: Default User.WINDOWS
ProfilesDirectory: %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings

It's not clear to me what to change. My guess is that I could change the
Data for DefaultUserProfile to the other profile's current folder name ("My
Name.Computer Name"). Or is ".WINDOWS" important to retain? Or is it the Name
"(Default)" that I should be changing? Thanks for clarification

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

You need to be extremely careful when modifying the registry. Small mistakes
such as reading
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
(which is what I wrote) and turning it into
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
(which is what you wrote) can have disastrous consequences.

Here is an example from my own registry. The key on the left:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\S-1-5-21-4233798886-620521722-3728218106-1006
has a value called "ProfileImagePath" on the right and its data is
%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\rchapman

It is obvious that the profile folder for rchapman is
%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\rchapman. This is the data you need to
change.

By the way, please try not to wait another 11 days until you respond. When
there is such a long gap between posts then it becomes necessary for
respondents to start afresh and re-familiarise themselves each time with
your problem.

Pegasus,

I started to undertake the modification you suggested. I found
"HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ProfileList." It has these
contents [Name: Data]:
(Default): (value not set)
AllUsersProfile: All Users.WINDOWS
DefaultUserProfile: Default User.WINDOWS
ProfilesDirectory: %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings

It's not clear to me what to change. My guess is that I could change the
Data for DefaultUserProfile to the other profile's current folder name
("My
Name.Computer Name"). Or is ".WINDOWS" important to retain? Or is it the
Name
"(Default)" that I should be changing? Thanks for clarification

You could do this:
1. Log on as administrator.
2. Modify the permissions of the old profile folder so that your new
account
has full read/write access to it.
3. Modify the registry so that your new account uses the old profile
folder.
The location is specified here: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList.

If you have little experience in modifying the registry then it's best to
ask a computer-savvy friend to assist you.

 

[rchapman]

Pegasus,

Thanks again for your quick reply, including the warning about correctly
reading registry paths. I had actually found it correctly. I incorporated the
path into my last posting by copying and pasting from your message, but I
must have inadvertently deleted the "NT" along with the "> " from the quote
of your message.

Anyway, I do see a key named "S-1-5-21-1659004503-790525478-725345543-1003"
which has a value "ProfileImagePath" with Data including the current profile
folder, "Owner." I now surmise that I want to change that to the desired
profile's folder name ("My Name.Computer Name"). Can I do that while logged
in as "Owner" or must I switch to a different administrative account?

Sorry about the recent delay. I wanted to wait a few days to collect all
responses, and then I wanted to try this on a day off work in order to deal
with complications if necessary, and I was on a trip last weekend, etc.

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

*** See below.

Pegasus,

Thanks again for your quick reply, including the warning about correctly
reading registry paths. I had actually found it correctly. I incorporated
the
path into my last posting by copying and pasting from your message, but I
must have inadvertently deleted the "NT" along with the "> " from the
quote
of your message.

*** Fine.

Anyway, I do see a key named
"S-1-5-21-1659004503-790525478-725345543-1003"
which has a value "ProfileImagePath" with Data including the current
profile
folder, "Owner." I now surmise that I want to change that to the desired
profile's folder name ("My Name.Computer Name"). Can I do that while
logged
in as "Owner" or must I switch to a different administrative account?

*** It probably does not matter.

Sorry about the recent delay. I wanted to wait a few days to collect all
responses, and then I wanted to try this on a day off work in order to
deal
with complications if necessary, and I was on a trip last weekend, etc.

*** OK.

 

[rchapman]

Changing the profile path in the registry to the former profile's folder name
(using a different administrative account) and renaming the recently created
"Owner" account to "My Name" seemed to work fine. However, after logging in
to "My Name," a few simple tasks would not behave correctly, such as
switching the appearance to Classic View (the apparent link was inactive);
setting the Theme to Windows Classic gave "unspecified error"; etc. After
reverting the profile path folder in the registry, I resorted to the brute
force transfer of most files from the old profile folder to the new one. I
know I'll have to reinstall most applications. I wonder if most shortcuts
will now be incorrect, since they pointed to files in the old profile.

Thanks again for your assistance.